Innovative Program Award and Research Grant Recipients

2017 Recipient — Dr. Karen Tabb Dina

NAPSW is pleased to announce that Dr. Karen Tabb Dina received the Innovative Program/Research Award this year at the 41st annual conference in Portland, Oregon. Karen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her proposal entitled “Prevalence of Suicidal Ideation in Diabetes among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Pregnant Women” seeks to identify the extent of the problem of suicidal thoughts among women with diabetes during pregnancy.

It is well known that the mental health needs of pregnant women are often complex, however little social work research specifically addresses the death rate during the perinatal period due to suicide. Furthermore while some research exists on diabetes and suicidal ideation separately, little has been done to explore the association of these variables in racially and ethnically diverse populations. The guiding hypothesis of this proposal is that suicidal thoughts will be greater among women with diabetes and minority pregnant women. This topic closely aligns with NAPSW’s mission of identifying risk factors for maternal mortality and addresses a gap in current research.

Dr. Tabb Dina’s proposal will include reviewing medical records of over 10,000 women receiving care in a regional tertiary hospital over a four-year period. Once completed the proposed study could develop one of the largest existing data sets on the topic of suicidal thoughts within this population in the U.S. Funds from the research award will be used to support a research assistant to aid in data collection and management of the data set. We look forward to Dr. Tabb Dina’s presentation of her findings at the 2018 NAPSW conference in Long Beach. Proposals for the 2018 award are currently being accepted. Please click here to learn more.

Past Innovative Program/Research Grant Recipients

The Forum articles referenced here can be accessed here. Please note, NAPSW Forum articles are available to members only. For more information please contact Margery Pentland.